The Next Great Adventure
by HeadGirl91
Summary: To the well organised mind, death is just the next great adventure"...or maybe the next great game, considering Harry and Albus have to spend their afterlife with Marauders and Co. Warning: Drinking, immaturity, Sirius and Fred on the loose...


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HeadGirl91: I owe my little brother a lot for being my inspiration for this fic.

Albus: Little brothers are ace!

Harry: You only say that 'cos you _are_ a little brother.

Sirius: My little brother was a right snot.

Lily: Sirius! That's not very nice!

James: Yeah Padfoot, do not incur the wrath of Lily. She's in a mood.

Lily: Am not!

Remus: Okay guys! Stop arguing!

Tonks: Maybe we should just get on with the story!

Fred: Yeah, preferably this side of the twenty-first century.

HeadGirl91: I own nothing!

* * *

Harry James Potter had a wonderful life.

At the age of 17, he had defeated the most evil wizard of all time and secured safety for the Wizarding world. At the age of 43, he was head of the auror office, married to a wonderful woman, had three amazing kids, the eldest of which was now married and expecting a child of his own.

His middle son, Albus, had just graduated Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Ginny had insisted that the pair of them do something to celebrate. So it had been decided that Harry and Albus would spend a month travelling the country the muggle way as Albus had always been fascinated by muggles.

The pair of them were currently travelling up the M1 in a car and arguing about their next destination.

"Aunt Hermione says that Sherwood Forest is a really good place to visit," Albus was insisting. "Some muggle bloke lived there apparently and did loads of interesting stuff! Robbing Blood or something..."

Harry sighed. "It was Robin Hood. And most of the stories are made up anyway."

Albus insisted that he still wanted to go there, and as soon as he turned those vivid green eyes, pleading, on him, Harry had to agree.

The pair of them were singing along, complacently, to an upbeat song on the radio when a car in front of them swerved suddenly.

Harry swore and tried to swerve out of the way, but it was too late. There was an almighty crash and he knew no more.

xxx

Harry awoke to the strangest feeling of deja vu. He turned to pull on clothes that were piled up at the side of him and then looked around to see the deserted kings Cross train station.

"I survived Voldemort, Death Eaters, countless years as an auror... and I die in a _car crash?_" He swore.

"Where are we?"

The voice from behind him made Harry jump. He spun round and turned to face his son, who looked quite confused.

"I woke up just before you did," Albus explained. "What is this place?"

"This is..." Harry bit his lip. How had Dumbledore explained it? "Sort of the in between place."

Albus looked even more confused. "In between what?"

"Life and death."

This came from behind them. Father and son spun round to face the group of people standing there, and Harry, immediately ran up and gave them each a hug, in turn.

Harry turned to Albus and introduced them.

"Al, this is my mum and dad. This is my godfather Sirius. These are Teddy's parents, Remus and Tonks. And this is your Uncle Fred."

Albus looked at them all, in shock. "But you're- So we're-"

Harry nodded. "And there's not a choice of going back this time is there?"

James and Lily shook their heads. Albus, meanwhile, started to be confused again.

"What do you mean? Have you been before dad?"

Harry nodded and said "yeah" before being cut off by a loud snort from his godfather.

"What?" Harry glared at Sirius, who couldn't seem to stop laughing.

"Nothing." Sirius lied, then looked over at Fred, who was trying his hardest not to laugh. Seeing Sirius's face, Fred too burst out laughing, until the two seemed to be holding eachother up.

Harry was getting really annoyed by this time. "Sirius Black! Fred Weasley! I am... or rather, was... Head of the Auror office for twenty-five years, I know ways of getting an answer from the pair of you that'll... leave you wishing you weren't already dead"

Sirius and Fred shut up at these words and got such looks on their faces that the rest of the group burst out laughing. Tonks's hair, which had been black, turned bubblegum pink as she laughed.

Fred began "look, Harry, mate. It's just..."

"Hearing you called Dad - it's hilarious!" Sirius finished, before getting glares from the three dads currently in attendance.

"And why is that so funny?" Asked Harry.

"'Cos you look as young as your son, mate." Fred told him.

Albus looked at his father. "Yeah, dad. He's right. You look about my age." He paused. "Wow, you look just like me! It's kinda freaky"

Harry thought for a moment. "Well I guess its because the last time I was here, I was seventeen. Or the last time the six of you saw me, I was seventeen."

Tonks's eyes lit up. "Hey! Harry stay right there, Albus stand next to your dad and James stand next to Harry."

They did as they were ordered and looked at Tonks with bemused expressions. "Okay, now everybody really look at them."

Everybody did. Remus was the first to speak.

"It's like some sort of dilution," he laughed. "There's James. Then there's Harry who is like a diluted version of James with a bit of Lily thrown in. Then there's Albus, who's a diluted version of Harry with a bit of Ginny mixed in."

The three Potter men looked at eachother and laughed. Then Harry asked, "so what do we do now? And why are all of you here?"

Lily was the one to answer this. "When someone dies, all the loved ones of this person on the other side are informed. Then someone volunteers to come and collect you." Lily smiled. "Usually there's only one person, but seen as the good you've done for the world, Harry, they made an exception."

"And at the moment," Sirius added, "we're apparently waiting for a train. Not sure how long that'll take though."

Fred grinned. "Well, why don't we play a little game..." Suddenly he was holding up a bottle of firewhiskey. "...of I Never."

Albus stared at the Firewhiskey. "Where'd that come from?"

Fred shrugged. "That's how this place works. Dunno how." He grinned. "So who's in?"

Harry, Albus, Sirius, James and Tonks agreed straight away. Remus and Lily seemed to be dithering. However, when their spouses looked up at them they gave in and they all sat in a circle. Fred filled each of them a shot glass which had turned up.

"Okay," Fred began, "the rules are: Someone says something they've never done, I'll go first and we'll go clockwise round, and if any person _has_ done it, then they have to take a drink. The drink is charmed so that you can't avoid it. However, if nobody's done it, the announcer has to take a drink. Or, if the announcer _has_ in fact done the thing, they must take a drink again."

Everyone agreed to these rules and Fred began.

xxx

"Right. I think I'll start by saying something outreageous that no-one has done to prove that every aspect of the game works... I never kissed Severus Snape!"

Everyone laughed. That is until they saw Lily looking horrified, her hand shooting forward for her shot glass and knocking the firewhiskey back.

James stared at his wife, eyes widening, protesting sounds coming out of his mouth at random intervals.

Sirius looked horrified. "You- when- what- how-?"

Lily looked down at her feet, blushing. "When Sev died, I was the one to meet him. It was just a friendly little peck James I swear!" She insisted to her shellshocked husband.

Harry, meanwhile, was rolling on the floor, laughing at his parents' antics. Albus looked confused. "Severus Snape? Wasn't he that headmaster you named me after? The one who..."

Sirius looked at Harry, shocked. "You named your son after _Snivellus?!_"

"Snivellus?" Albus looked at his father.

Harry laughed. "Sirius and my dad hated Snape, they went to school together, and he hated them back."

Remus, ever the peacemaker, cut in. "Okay, move on. Next question goes to Sirius."

"Can you do another outrageous one Sirius? Just to see whether it works?" Asked Fred.

"Sure," Sirius said, still grumbling slightly. Then he sighed. "Okay, this doesn't apply to everybody anyway, so less chance of anyone having done it."

"Just get on with it Padfoot." James whined.

"Alright!" Sirius rolled his eyes. "I never waited until my wedding night to have sex."

Most of the present company that were married were relieved and Lily was about to take her turn when someone's hand shot towards their shot glass.

"Harry!" Sirius sounded disappointed.

"Ew!" This was from Albus. "I really don't want to hear about my parents' sex life!"

Fred was in stitches. "You never... until... hahaha..."

Harry glared at him. "Remember your mother? This tall, redhead, dragon-like tendencies when provoked..."

Sirius shuddered. "I am so glad I only had a year of that! You've had..."

"Thirty-one years." Harry told them. "Since second year."

Fred laughed gleefully. "You've had to put up with my mum for longer than I did! I was twenty when I died!"

Harry laughed. "She was amazing though. She always treated me like a seventh son."

At this, Lily leaned across and hugged her son. "I am so sorry I couldn't be there for you." She whispered into his ear.

"It's alright mum." Harry whispered back and she let go to go sit back down.

"'Kay Lil, your turn." Sirius told her.

Lily grinned. "No more outrageous, they don't seem to be working... Maybe we're just too ourageous?" Everyone laughed. "Well, you've all given me this idea... I never incurred the wrath of Molly Weasley!"

At this, every one of the group, apart from Lily herself had to take a drink.

Lily laughed. "Okay, Fred and Harry I can guess, but how did the rest of you...?"

Sirius was the first to reply, dryly, "I was always getting on her nerves. We mainly argued over Harry, though." He smiled wistfully. "We had very different ideas on how he should have been taken care of."

Harry remembered these arguments vividly. They usually had to be broken up by whichever Order member happened to walk by at the time.

James was next. "My first ever Order meeting, I set up a trip jinx for Moony, who was _supposed"_ he glared "to walk by to sit on my other side. But Molly got there first." He gulped. "You can all guess what happened."

Remus snorted. "I remember. She shouted herself hoarse and called you every name under the sun. Even Dumbledore didn't have the nerve to interrupt her."

Tonks laughed. "Well, I was always knocking stuff over and waking up all the portraits at Headquarters. Molly was sick of it, so after a full month, she threatened to hex me into oblivion the next time I did."

Remus grinned. "Then, two hours later, you knocked over that same umbrella stand on your way out."

"At least it was on the way out," Albus reasoned.

"Yeah," Tonks replied. "That way, the jinx hit the door instead."

"Remus?" Lily prompted.

Remus sighed, slightly embaressed. "It was back when I was still refusing to have anything to do with Dora." He looked over at his wife. "Sorry dear."

She took hold of his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze as he went on.

"This one time, she totally lost it and told me that I was being stupid and that if I ever stepped foot in her house again, without apologizing to Dora, then she wouldn't be responsible for her actions." He paused. "I believe she threatened the Unforgiveables."

"Which one?" Harry asked.

"All of them."

Albus laughed. "She's been mad at me a few times, but the worst was when we were five. Me and Rose got caught trying to persuade Lily and Hugo to jump out of an upstairs window at The Burrow."

Harry laughed while everyone else looked horrified. "I remember that. Your grandma was so mad that by the time I got there, she was still incapable of coherent speech."

Lily asked Albus "why were you trying to get them to jump out the window?"

"We were playing dares and we wanted to dare them to do something different. We'd already gone through all our usual dares and we needed more material."

Lily was still looking slightly horrified, so James decided to carry on the game.

Grinning evilly, he said "I never survived Avada Kedavra."

Harry glared at his father and took a drink.

Taking his cue, Remus continued with a similar grin, "I never defeated the greatest dark wizard of all time."

Harry moved his glare to Remus while Albus started to laugh.

"I never dropped out of Hogwarts." This was from Tonks.

Harry glared at her now. "Are you all _trying_ to get me drunk? Why are you ganging up on me?"

Albus was laughing so hard, it took him a while to get enough breath for his turn.

"I never forgot it was my wife's birthday until teatime."

Harry drunk his shot again and glared at everyone. "Are you all happy? You're turning my own son against me! You're all bad influences!"

"You forgot your wife's birthday!" Lily asked, aghast.

"I was really busy at work." Harry defended. "And you kids weren't any help! You didn't tell me!"

"Mum told us not to." Albus reminded him. "It was funny though."

"You weren't the one on the receiving end of her Bat Bogey Hex, though. Were you?

Remus interrupted, laughing. "Okay Harry, your turn now."

Harry smiled, a little lopsidedly admittedly, as he was well on his way to becoming smashed.

"Right," he said with only a slight slur. "My turn. I'm gonna get you all back."

Sirius laughed. "You can't possibly find something that all the rest of us have done and you haven't!"

James agreed. "Most things that apply to us won't apply to Albus on account of him being born, what, twenty-four years after Lily and I died?"

"Ten years after I died." Put in Sirius.

"And eight years after me, Remus and Fred."

Harry suddenly grinned evilly, having been struck by a thought. "I never died whilst under the age of forty."

Everyone else groaned and knocked back their firewhiskey.

"Practically the only thing we have in common, and he manages to find it!" Fred complained.

Sirius sat up straighter, as though he'd just realised something. "Ha! You're the eldest!"

James snorted and then broke out into hysterical laughter. "Hehe...He's right!...You...you lived forty-three years...hehe...and I'm only twenty-one!"

"But...!" Harry protested, ignoring Albus's laughter behind him. "It doesn't work like that! Remus was born first! Doesn't that make him the eldest?"

Remus laughed. "No. You are technically the eldest because you've lived longer than all of us."

Tonks considered this. "So... in order of length of life, it'd be Albus at 18 is the youngest..."

"Then me!" Fred offered helpfully.

"Yeah," Tonks agreed. "Then James, then Lily..."

"Then you," Remus interjected.

She nodded. "Then Sirius, then Remus... and finally Harry, the old codger at forty-three!"

"I am not an old codger!" Harry whined.

"Aww! Poor baby!" Lily teased her son.

Harry just sulked.

"Okay," Albus laughed. "New game."


End file.
